Knee pain, walking and some cautious 4ks
Jul. 25th, 2014 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmc28 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
c25kThe day after my 12k run, my left knee/lower leg was definitely Not Happy. I experimentally walked for 30 minutes which seemed to help, so I did it again in the evening. I spent the rest of that week putting in 30min walks in my lunch hour and again in the evenings if I could, and everything seemed a lot happier. I missed Thursday evening because of children and Friday entirely because of heat.
I did read up carefully on runner's knee, but don't *think* that's what's going on. It feels more like my dodgy pelvis i.e. overmobility as a legacy of pregnancy. Regular walking or running seems to keep the pelvis happy, and regular walking seemed to ease up the knee rather than make it worse. I have been a bit slack about stretching lately, so my muscles may not be able to keep things in the right position as well as they need to.
On Saturday morning I did a cautious 4k at 30s:45s and took particular care with my stretching afterward, and also managed two 30-minute walks in the evening. All seemed well that day and the next. I continued with the "1 or 2 30-min walks a day" regime, running Monday evening and Wednesday morning, this time ~30 min at 30s:30s and again stretching carefully afterward, and again all seems well.
1-2x 30 mins walking or running a day is a lot of time commitment but it really seems to help my stability (pelvis, knee and mental health too!). So I made myself an "ideal world" schedule:
Thursday nights are most likely to be lost to children, so that can be a bonus run if I do get out. That means I'm running 3 times a week normally, 1 of them long, and I can work on building up both speed and distance as previously planned.
The running is all in the evening for now (well, Saturday long runs are a combination of "when it isn't too hot" and "when it best fits in with the family") but that's seasonal.
If I can stick to this for a few more weeks, the next bit of my plan is to sort out a weights programme (i.e. use my gym membership and get someone to write me a programme). I think I could swap two lunchtime walks for two lunchtime run-to-gym-and-lift-weights sessions, and add a Sunday weights session. The gym is about 7 minutes away from my office on my usual running-lunchtime route, and about 35 minutes walk from home. So 2x 20 min session in the week, and a longer session at the weekend.
I did read up carefully on runner's knee, but don't *think* that's what's going on. It feels more like my dodgy pelvis i.e. overmobility as a legacy of pregnancy. Regular walking or running seems to keep the pelvis happy, and regular walking seemed to ease up the knee rather than make it worse. I have been a bit slack about stretching lately, so my muscles may not be able to keep things in the right position as well as they need to.
On Saturday morning I did a cautious 4k at 30s:45s and took particular care with my stretching afterward, and also managed two 30-minute walks in the evening. All seemed well that day and the next. I continued with the "1 or 2 30-min walks a day" regime, running Monday evening and Wednesday morning, this time ~30 min at 30s:30s and again stretching carefully afterward, and again all seems well.
1-2x 30 mins walking or running a day is a lot of time commitment but it really seems to help my stability (pelvis, knee and mental health too!). So I made myself an "ideal world" schedule:
| Lunch | Evening | |
| Mon | walk | run |
| Tue | walk | walk |
| Wed | social lunch | date night |
| Thu | walk | bonus run |
| Fri | walk | run |
| Sat | long run | |
| Sun | 2x walk | |
Thursday nights are most likely to be lost to children, so that can be a bonus run if I do get out. That means I'm running 3 times a week normally, 1 of them long, and I can work on building up both speed and distance as previously planned.
The running is all in the evening for now (well, Saturday long runs are a combination of "when it isn't too hot" and "when it best fits in with the family") but that's seasonal.
If I can stick to this for a few more weeks, the next bit of my plan is to sort out a weights programme (i.e. use my gym membership and get someone to write me a programme). I think I could swap two lunchtime walks for two lunchtime run-to-gym-and-lift-weights sessions, and add a Sunday weights session. The gym is about 7 minutes away from my office on my usual running-lunchtime route, and about 35 minutes walk from home. So 2x 20 min session in the week, and a longer session at the weekend.
(no subject)
Date: 25/07/2014 11:31 am (UTC)Weights would be cool, I need to get back into doing weights, I haven't since I moved to a smaller place which doesn't have a lot of room for playing with my dumbells and since I stopped going to the gym cos it's been warm enough to run outside.
(no subject)
Date: 25/07/2014 11:36 am (UTC)